divided into six groups of four with each team playing each other once within the group in a round-robin format. The two top teams from each group along with the four best third-placed sides advanced to a knock-out phase. The game was played at the Rose Bowl, in the city of Pasadena, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. With a capacity of 102,000, it was the largest of the venues selected for the World Cup and had previously hosted the gold medal match at the 1984 Summer Olympics and five Super Bowls, as well as the annual Rose Bowl Game in college American football. The ball for this game was the Adidas Questra, which was introduced at the start of the World Cup. The ball was lighter than those previously used. Canadian journalist Scott McKeen described it as having been "engineered to created more excitement for soccer, in a land where there has been little soccer excitement". The ball's controllability was praised by strikers in the tournament, but goalkeepers criticized what they said was its unpredictable tendency to deviate in flight. Brazil had won the title three times before, in 1958, 1962 and 1970, while Italy had also recorded three wins in the 1934, 1938 and 1982 tournaments. The winner would therefore be the first nation to record a fourth World Cup win. The two teams had met four times previously in the World Cup with two wins each – in the semi-final of the 1938 tournament, which Italy won 2–1; the 1970 final, which Brazil won 4–1; the third-place playoff in 1978, won 2–1 by Brazil, and four years later in the group stage, where Italy won the game 3–2. Brazil began the tournament as favorites, with both pundits and bookmakers regarding them as the most likely team to win. Commentators cited the team's star players such as Raí and Romario, as well as the hot weather conditions, which they said would favor Latin American teams. Italy was also listed before the tournament among the teams likely to win the competition, although some commentators thought they might face difficulties based on poor recent performance and a failure to adapt to manager Arrigo Sacchi's preferred attacking style of play. In the 1990 World Cup, Brazil had been eliminated in the round of 16, losing to Argentina, while Italy finished third in the tournament, on home soil, beating England